aspects of Volleyball

Question
I was wondering about the aspects of Volleyball and wether its and open or closed skill?

Answer
Hello Chelsea and welcome to www.AllExperts.com

My name is Coach Tovar

To make sure that all my readers young and old can understand some of my comments, I have chosen to use simple vocabulary words and interpret the rule for this sole purpose.

Well Chelsea this is a very subjective question because there are a lot of professionals who are still doing research and studies today on whether a certain sport and it's skills are considered to be both open and closed skills. This is only my opinion to the best of my knowledge about this subject.

Let me start with the aspects of volleyball.
Aspects of volleyball deals with the rules, skills, game procedures and basically everything that has to do with creating a team and placing that team in a competitive stage. This also includes the mental and physical part of volleyball.

The aspects of volleyball can be taken to many different levels but that will not assure that your players will be successful in the game of volleyball. Let me give you an example. I used to coach in Mexico back in the early 1990's as an assistant women's club coach for a few weeks and as a coach for the men's club team for about a year and a half. I would remember several times that I would be practicing next to another coach who would give their players so many key words with specific instructions with excellent terminology delivery. Our head women's coach would give our players only a few key words and simple instructions at a time. Their team usually never won a game and I could never understand that because our team would always finish in 2nd or first place.

You see that other coach was making a closed skill into an open skill.
I will give you my personal opinion only and hopefully I can help you understand this subject more clearly. All skills are divided into two sections, the mental part and the physical part. Within these two parts there are many others sections that deal with sports and training. I will concentrate only on both the open and closed skills.

Closed skills are those skill where they are very easily understood and performed. In other words you do not have to think too much about them to make a decision. You have a lot of more time to make your decision and perform the skill (as an example - a serve in a volleyball). Yes sometimes it can be at a fast pace but not compared to a open skill. The environment is not changed in a closed skill. In a closed skill you will have to make less steps in order to perform a skill.

Open skills are those skills where you need to make quick adjustments, faster decisions, and think more about the many possibilities you can do for each skill. You have a wider range of demands. You have been taught more ways on how to read a defense, how to read a great server etc. For example if I just teach you to spike the volleyball regardless then that would be a closed skill but if I train you to dink, set the ball over, punch the ball, play off the block etc. then you have been taught that skill as an open skill.

In my opinion all sports are not open and closed skills but all skills can be open skills and closed skills. The level of experience will not make a closed skill into an open skill because now your knowledge about the game has become repetitive. Therefore sports which are considered a closed skill will not suddenly be considered an open skill because the environment in the skill will not change even though other aspects might slightly change.

The best way for you to learn the difference between a closed skill and an open skill is for me to compare them both in several examples.

EXAMPLE 1 (Closed Skill)- Receiving a volleyball in the gym where there is little movement involved where the only other thing to think about is a specialized serve.
EXAMPLE 1 (Open Skill) - Receiving a volleyball outside where now you have to worry about sunlight, wind, air density, more sweat, sand in your eyes, your ankles adjusting to the shifting of the sand as you step on it etc.

In other words you have a better chance of passing a good ball to the setter indoors then you would if you were outside.

EXAMPLE 2 (Closed Skill)- a penalty kick where the player only has to kick against the goalie.
EXAMPLE 2 (Open Skill) - that same player trying to avoid defenders while trying to kick a goal and at the same time worry about where the goalie is at the time of the kick.

In other words other words you have a better chance of making 8 out of 10 penalty goals but you cannot make 8 out of 10 goals while you have a defender on a you.

EXAMPLE 3 (Closed Skill)- in basketball where you pass the ball to your partner in a chest pass.
EXAMPLE 3 (Open Skill) - a player trying to make a free throw where they have to concentrate on may aspects such as calculating distance, power, arch, angle, ball release etc.

In other words you can probably make 50 chest passes in a row but you cannot make 50 baskets in a row.


EXAMPLE 4 (Closed Skill)- swinging at a golf ball off the tee.
EXAMPLE 4 (Open Skill) - swinging a bat at a baseball coming in from the pitcher.

In other words if you went into these two professions without knowing the two sports, it would be easier for you to swing and hit the golf ball many times then it would be for a professional baseball pitcher to pitch you a ball and you hitting the baseball many times.

I hope this answers your question.

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